Still I Think I Want You to Be Here
by Lalalu
Summary: What should you do when a demon comes and messes up your life? What should you do when she doesn't listen when you tell her to go away? What if you notice you want her to stay? AxC Chapter Three: Of Raspberries and Elephants
1. I'm Cagalli

Hi, I'm Lalalu, this is my third series with AxC. I pretend like the first one doesn't exists though... But I managed to safely complete my second one at least.

Ok where should I begin? I don't know if it will suit everyone, this is a strange (kinky?) story and I'm not sure I want to acknowledge it's me who's written it but it's true.

AU, major OOC (especially Cagalli, I would think), sex, AxC, CxA. **Warning**: Athrun might be with other girls than Cagalli, but this is an asucaga fic, no mistake about that.

One more important warning: There may be some KiraXFllay, I know there are many of you who can't stand that coupling. Their relation will be more of a sex friend type rather than a love relationship though.

You've been warned so please refrain from any kind of complaints concerning the pairings, I won't change them.

I'm aiming for a light-hearted story this time, we'll see if I'll be able to keep it that way…

This story will contain sexual situations if you don't like that, you shouldn't read any further.

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam SEED or Gundam SEED DESTINY

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This chapter contains a lemon, if you want to read the that version head to my profile page and press the link to my homepage where you will find it.

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**Still I Think I Want You (to Be Here)**

**01. I'm Cagalli**

Athrun woke up with a headache. Something was strange, he couldn't immediately place what it was. It certainly was his bedroom, and this most certainly was his bed. But something was different. A sweet smell that certainly wasn't unpleasant but it didn't belong there. And when he moved he felt something warm, something heavy, something that definitely didn't belong there! In an instant cold sweat formed on his forehead and slowly he turned around while trying to brace himself for whatever was the cause of that abnormality. He turned, and found himself looking straight into a pair of big, amber coloured eyes about 10 centimetres away from his face, "UAAAAAAAh!!!!" he screamed and desperately tried to move away from them, a way to sudden movement which led him to lose his balance and fall down from the bed.

The unknown girl crawled to the side of the bed and peered down at him, "What are you doing?" she asked with surprised look on her face.

A number of thoughts went through Athrun's head, why was he only wearing shorts? (Athrun Zala always wears pyjamas) Who was this girl? More importantly what was she doing in his bed? Even more importantly, why wasn't she wearing any clothes!? _"Although she is cute… This is not the time to think about that!!!"_

"Who are you!? What are you doing in my bed!?" he asked the same questions that he just asked himself in his head… but this way he might get an answer to the mystery.

"…you don't remember do you?"

"If I did would I be asking!?" Athrun screamed back at her.

"I'm Cagalli. You saved me from being hit by a car ♪." Cagalli answered cheerfully, clearly not affected by Athrun's behaviour.

"Ah…"

Cagalli chuckled a little when she saw Athrun's reaction, "You look like you remember now."

Aah, he remembered it alright, the whole tragedy started to painfully replay in his head…

It was the beginning of the end of an ordinary day. Athrun was on his way to the underground station, going home from another late day at the office. A deadline was coming up and they were all busy, especially Athrun who had been given the opportunity to lead this project. His colleges had invited him to come and have a drink after work, but he had refused. All he wanted to do was to eat something quick, look through some papers for tomorrow and then go to bed. It was going to be another rough day and he had been lacking sleep lately, or more accurately he had trouble falling asleep. When he went to bed, he lay there and thought about work and what he had to do, unable to relax. So today he thought he would go to bed early, even if it took time to fall asleep he should at least get a few hours extra anyway.

He stopped by the traffic lights and thought about what he was going to have for dinner, when he noticed a kid wearing a cap about to step right out into the street ignoring the red lights, and at the same time a car was coming with high speed. He's going to be hit! Athrun thought and dashed forward and grabbed the kid and pulled him back to the pavement.  
Athrun who had been quite alarmed, now turned the shock into anger and grabbed the kid's shoulders and started to yell at him, "What do you think you're doing!? Walking right into the street when the lights are red? Do you want to get yourself killed!?" he spat out in one breath, and with his hands still firmly on the kid's shoulders, he breathed deeply trying to calm down. If you knew Athrun, you would probably be quite surprised by this sudden display of rage. This kid didn't know Athrun but was quite surprised anyway.

"K- killed?" he said uncertainly and looked shocked.

"You where centimetres from being run down by that car you know!"

"Car?" he asked and suddenly started smiling, for some reason looking very satisfied.

Athrun looked at him with doubt and not without irritation, what was wrong with this kid? Maybe he was retarded?

"Yes, a car. You do know what a car is, don't you? They're big and hard you are small and soft, consequently if you get hit you become a wet little pile of goo but the car only gets a little dent." Ok, he exaggerated, but at that speed it would no doubt mean death.

"I know about cars! It was on last week's test!" the kid smiled happily. Actually he had a beautiful smile and those big amber coloured eyes were quite gorgeous… wait that wasn't something he was supposed to think about guy! …ahem, anyway it was too bad that what was behind them was insanity. He sighed, he was getting crazy trying to reason with this …mentally challenged, person.

He absentmindedly looked down and suddenly his gaze landed on two soft looking bulges that definitely didn't look like they belonged on a guy. So this wasn't a guy? Which meant it must be a girl… A girl… A girl!? He was standing this close to a girl holding her, quite roughly one might add, Athrun Zala who never had behaved violently towards a girl in his whole life. Not even in first grade when a girl had thrown sand in his eyes. Not even in sixth grade when some girls had cut off locks from his hair (they had asked him first but when he said no they had cut it off anyway), or that girl who was stalking him in high school who sent him a dead rat when he turned her down and almost pushed him down from the school roof. Not even then, but now he had an iron grip on this little girl's shoulders.

He immediately let go of her and started to apologise, "Ahem, sorry… I didn't realise… sorry. Are you alright?"

The girl looked at him like he had lost his mind, "What are you talking about, why are you apologising? More importantly," she said and took both his hands with hers, "You have to let me repay you somehow. I'm Cagalli, who are you?"

"Eh?! I'm Athrun… What you do mean repay me?" Athrun asked bewildered.

"You saved my life, of course I have to repay you! I know I'll treat you dinner!" Cagalli exclaimed, smiling radiantly.

He looked at his watch, trying to indicate he was in a hurry and said, "Eh? No, no, please don't make any troubles for me, I only did the obvious and I really should be getting hom-"

"What are you talking about, of course I have to repay you." Cagalli interrupted him.

"No really it's fine, I really…"

"If you don't let me repay you I'll be owing you won't I? I don't want to go around feeling I'm indebted to you!"

Athrun looked at the girl who was looking up at him with tears threatening to well up in her eyes and sighed. He grasped that she wasn't going to let him get away that easily so he figured he might as well let her treat him and get it over with as fast as possible.

"Alright, but I have to get to work early tomorrow so this can't take too long."

"Don't worry, I promise it won't! Come on let's go!" the girl named Cagalli broke out into a full-blooming smile and grabbed his arm and dragged him with her.

"Hey, wait! Don't go so fast!" He tried to pull back his arm but Cagalli had an iron grip on him and he couldn't get loose. He stumbled after her and he thought he must look pathetic right now, but this girl was so pushy it couldn't be helped.

The place she dragged him to… He was at loss for words and unconsciously stopped outside, it was his instincts that told him it was an incredibly bad idea to enter that place. Unfortunately though, even if he had stopped Cagalli hadn't and he would have fallen down the stairs if she hadn't caught him.

"What are you doing? It's dangerous to space out like that, you would have fallen down the stairs and maybe broken your neck if I hadn't noticed."

"…Let me remind you it was you pulled me down. If you hadn't done that I wouldn't have fallen in the first place." Athrun muttered sulkily.

"Eh, I did? Well don't worry about it, I'll catch you if you fall again."

"Couldn't you just let go?"

"But I don't want you to run away before I've repaid you, and you looked kind of reluctant…" She objected uncertainly.

"I said I'd follow you didn't I, are you saying I'm a liar?" Athrun really started to get annoyed, what was with this girl anyway?

"No!! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to doubt you. I was just worried." She really looked like she was sorry and Athrun sighed, somehow he didn't seem able to stay angry at her for very long.

"Don't worry about it… So are we really going in here?" He asked worriedly looking at the suspicious looking cellar door that seemed to be the entrance.

"Yeah, it looks nice don't you think?!" Cagalli asked excitedly, apparently she had recovered fully.

"Ehehe…he well, I don't…" think so… he was about to say but Cagalli was already on her way.

"Let's go inside!"

"Hmm, alright…" He agreed against better judgement.

At the moment they came in Athrun felt how everybody's eyes were directed at them. It wasn't a very pleasant feeling, especially since most of them felt more hostile than curious, possibly they didn't want any strangers to come and invade their territory. Of course Cagalli didn't seem to mind or even notice she just said hello to everyone, talked constantly to him and walked all around the place examining everything and everyone. They started looking really annoyed so Athrun opened his mouth,

"Maybe we should sit down? We don't want to bother the other guests."

"Oh yeah, right. Let's sit here, Athrun!" She shouted and pointed at a free table.

They sat down and a waitress who (probably) had seen better days came and almost threw the menus at them.

Athrun coughed a little, the cigarette smoke was thick, ignoring the smoking prohibition. He looked at the menu, he cautiously looked around the room, even more cautiously looked at the other guests (he didn't want to be caught staring) and made the decision he wasn't going to eat anything that came from this kitchen, not even if his life depended on it. Actually his life did depend on it, eating here was like begging to be food poisoned.

"What are you having?" Cagalli asked interestedly.

"I'm not that hungry, I'll just have something to drink."

"Really? Don't hold back."

"Really." Athrun emphasised and to change focus he quickly said, "What about you, what are you having?"

"Steak! Bloody."

"Eh, are you sure? I think it would be best to have it well done… you don't want to get food poisoned…" He whispered the last part, he didn't want to offend the scary looking people around them.

"Food poisoned! Why would I be food poisoned!?" Cagalli asked in a very loud voice and Athrun could sense the hostility from the surrounding rising,

"Shhh! Not so loud." He hushed her with a loud whisper.

"Why are you whispering?"

"Nevermind." Athrun could just sigh, why was it so difficult to get through to this girl?

"Oi, we want to order!" Cagalli waved and shouted to the waitress.

The waitress made a face, left her cigarette on the side of the ash tray and slowly made her way to their table.

"So?" she asked shortly.

"The biggest steak you have, bloody." Cagalli said without hesitation.

"Anything with that?"

"Chips!"

"Ok…" she noted and turned to Athrun with a questioning look.

"Eh? Yeah, right. I'll have… I'll have…"

"Will you make up your mind already? It's not like I have time to stand here all night:"

"Whisky…" He muttered to himself. Single malt of course but which brand? He had to ask what they had.

"Alright, anything else?"

"I'll have whisky too!" Cagalli said.

"Are you going to drink whisky to your meal?" Athrun asked.

"Yeah, so what?"

"Normally, you don't do that."

"I want to have the same as you." Cagalli said pouting.

"Do as you please." Athrun gave up and was finally about to ask the waitress when he noticed she had already left. He sighed loudly, who knew what she would bring him now. He could only hope it would be drinkable.

"What are you sighing for? We're supposed to have fun."

"You maybe…" He mumbled quietly.

"Did you say something?"

"No, nothing at all." Athrun quickly said.

He looked at carefully at Cagalli and opened his mouth, "By the way, how old are you? You look awfully young, are you even allowed to drink alcohol?"

"Hey that's pretty rude, how young do you think I am? Twelve?"

"Eh, no I didn't expect you to be _that_ young that would be pretty bad… Wait how old are you anyway?" Athrun became seriously nervous, maybe he was committing a crime right this moment. People might misjudge the situation, but he wasn't a lolicon, he was just too pathetic to say no to a little girl (not meaning anything dirty).

"What does it matter? I'm above thirteen anyway."

"No it's not a question of being over thirteen, it's over eighteen right?"

"Why? I've been drinking alcohol since I was thirteen, hasn't everybody?"

"What!? No! It's eighteen!" (…even tough I shouldn't be talking since I started when I was 15, but no matter how you look at it thirteen is just too young, normally…)

"Oh yeah, right! How could I forget? Of course, in the human world it's at least eighteen… I really need to review my text books…" Cagalli reproached herself.

""Human world" What are you talking about?"

"You don't have to worry Athrun, I'm over eighteen, you can be sure of that."

"Thank God." Athrun whispered relieved. He looked at her again, and he could see that she at least could not be thirteen, in fact even if she looked very young she definitely didn't look like a child. He had just panicked and jumped into conclusions, he really had to calm down.

It wasn't easy to determine how old someone was, he was often mistaken to be under twenty even though he was twenty-four. He almost always had to show ID when he bought alcohol at the store. There were downsides with looking younger especially at work, it was hard to be taken seriously, especially by clients. And he had to work hard to earn their trust, especially with this new project he was leading, which they developed alongside with the clients.

Mysteriously he had never been asked to show his ID at a club, not even when he was in high school. (Athrun wasn't aware of it, but no one would ever dream of refusing someone looking like him.) He and Kira used to go out to places together and they were treated drinks by women who were much older than them. He had thought it was embarrassing but Kira always gladly accepted for both. Kira talked and laughed with everyone while Athrun mostly was quiet, listening to what the others said and occasionally answering questions. He was not proud of it but he got used to let people buy drinks for him and he never bought a drink himself, though it was partly because he in high school and he didn't have much money. His parents had some idea that he wouldn't learn the value of money if he got everything he wanted so therefore his allowance was small.

"You're spacing out again Athrun." Cagalli hit him lightly on his head.

"Hey!" Athrun protested.

"It's your fault for not answering."

"…sorry."

The waitress came with the drinks placed them on the table,

"Wait, can you bring the whole bottle?" Cagalli asked.

"…Sure." The waitress made an irritated face again but went and got the bottle anyway.

"How much are you planning to drink anyway? Isn't this a little too much for two persons?"

"I said don't hold back didn't I? Come on drink." She urged him.

"Just don't expect me to carry you home if you get too drunk…" Athrun complained.

"Oh, yeah we should toast!"

"Toast? To what?"

"Hmm, let's see… To a fateful meeting? The beginning of a lasting friendship?"

"Ehh, no I rather not…" Athrun didn't want this to be a lasting relationship, he rather not see her ever again.

"You're picky… What about: To Human and Demon Relations?"

"Huh!?" Athrun said with a stupid look on his face. Had he heard right? Maybe she really was a run-away patient from a mental hospital?

"I'm a demon, didn't I tell you?"

"No, you definitely did not." Athrun started to make up escape plans in his head, now it was decided: she definitely wasn't sane.

"Oh, you don't believe me do you?"

"Eh, hmm… I"

"It's Ok, they told me it was going to be like this."

"Who are they?"

"What if I said I could prove that I'm a demon?" She said sneering a little.

It almost felt like she was making fun of him which made him a little irritated and without thinking he said, "In that case, show me."

"Alright, are you ready?" Cagalli asked and looked expectantly at him.

"Ok…" In reality he wasn't ready at all, he didn't trust her for a minute not to do something outrageous that would result in both of them getting their asses kicked. He regretted doing something so stupid as to challenge her.

Cagalli took off her cap, and there were two small but distinct horns. Athrun saw them, panicked and hurriedly urged her to put it back on.

"Do you believe me now?" Cagalli said triumphantly.

"Yes I believe you, just please put it back on." He begged. Ok… what the hell was that? That definitely didn't look normal in any way. Could she really be a demon? No, demons couldn't possibly exist, it just wasn't possible. This was reality not some cheap ass fantasy novel. Was she like those freaks who think they're vampires, and she took it even a step further and let someone operate in horns in her skull? Anyway he reckoned it would be a bad idea to show those to the world, who knew how people here would react.

"Listen, Cagalli, I think you better keep that cap on. Don't show those ...things to anyone."

"Why?"

"I don't think people would take it very well, it's just that."

"But it would ruin the purpose."

"What purpose? I'm not quite following… Anyway, please just listen. Don't show them to anyone, you might get in serious trouble."

"But I showed them to you, and nothing bad happened."

"Maybe you were lucky, but there are many bad people in this world that might harm you. And even more people who don't except things… I mean people who are different. And who said you could trust me? You don't know me, I might be a bad person."

"I trust you, Athrun. I can tell you're a good person."

"…Didn't you listen to what I said? You don't know me."

"But you saved me didn't you? I can feel you're a good person, I may not look like it but I'm pretty good judge of character."

"…" Athrun had mixed feelings, some part of him felt a little flattered and another part was really suspicious if she really was the good judge of character she claimed to be. He sighed, he felt exhausted too much had happened and it was impossible to take it all in. He emptied the glass and filled it again.

"Too bad I haven't learnt to draw in my horns yet, I should have practiced more…" Cagalli sighed.

"What's that, you can draw in them?" Athrun asked surprised. He looked at her in amazement as her fabrications became more and more outrageous.

"Well, ordinarily but I kind of haven't learnt that yet."

"Is it that hard?" He might as well play along.

"I don't know, the only thing I know is that I can't. The rest of my family can, even my little brother and sister." Her family? She was saying her family had horns too? Maybe it was a genetic defect running in her family, alongside lunacy?

After a while Cagalli got her steak, the mere size of it made Athrun nauseous and it didn't get better when she cut it and blood ran out on the plate. Cagalli on the other hand looked very pleased and happily loaded a large piece of meat into her mouth. Athrun drank the rest of what was in his glass and began on another, he started to feel a little drunk but it was necessary if he was going stand this.

"Are you really going to eat the whole thing? It must be close to a kilo? You'll be sick." He asked worriedly when she had munched over half of the steak plus and a mountain of chips.

"This? No problem."

"Just don't throw up on me…" Athrun muttered.

When Cagalli finally put down the cutlery on the empty plate Athrun could just look at her in horror. No way could a little girl like her eat so much, he hadn't even thought it was humanly possible.

"Athrun have some more to drink," She said and filled his glass, "Like I said, no holding back."

"I haven't exactly been holding back…" he contradicted her but accepted the refill anyway.

They sat a little while longer emptying the bottle before Athrun suggested they should pay. But when they got the bill, Cagalli checked her pockets and then smiled a little nervously and Athrun had a foreboding feeling,

"What, don't tell me you don't have any money?"

"Hehehe…"

"Sigh… well it's not that I couldn't guess things would come to this. I'll pay." It really didn't matter to him, it felt strange anyway to have a girl who (probably) was younger than him treating him. At the very least he had wanted to split the bill, but now they wouldn't do that either.

"…It's not that I don't have any money! I have, but it's not the right kind, I kind of forgot to exchange… But I promise, I will pay, you'll get your money."

"It's Ok." This was the last time they would see each other anyway.

"But now I owe you even more! No, I will pay you no matter what."

"It's Ok, really." Yes really.

But when Athrun was about to hand his credit card to the waitress she just looked at him and said, "We don't take credit cards."

Athrun doubted his ears, "Excuse me, you don't take credit cards?"

"No, we don't. Didn't you see the sign?" She answered and pointed towards the counter where the register was.

"No I didn't…" He still didn't see even if she pointed it out to him. But it didn't change the fact that they didn't accept credit cards so he checked his wallet and he froze, he didn't have any cash. He checked his pockets but all he could find was small change.

This was bad, this was seriously bad. This time they might get beaten up for real. But this was not the right time to panic, even if he didn't like the thought of leaving a girl alone in a place like this, there was no other way.

"Excuse me, I wonder if it would be alright for me to go to a cash machine, I didn't notice your sign before…"

"Are you saying you don't have any money?" The waitress narrowed her brows.

"No, no, I'm saying I don't have any cash, if you'd please let me..."

"Harry!! These two say they don't have any money!"

"WHAT!!" They heard a loud voice from the bar and a very large man with his arms full of tattoos came out from the kitchen and started walk towards them.

"Please let me explain!"

"You better or else…"

"I have money-"

"Then why don't you just pay?"

"Please… I have money, but not on me."

"That's what they all say."

"Do I look like someone who doesn't have any money?"

"Haven't you ever learnt you can't judge a man after his appearance?"

"Well that is very wise of you but as I was saying…"

"You pay now or else…" The man grabbed Athrun by his collar and started to shake him.

They were interrupted by Cagalli who jumped up on the table and screamed,

"WAAAAAH!! Let Athrun go!" She hadn't quite been following the events but finally she had at least understood that they were threatening Athrun.

Everybody just stopped and looked at Cagalli, and Athrun took the opportunity to make one last attempt to get through to them,

"I think I've been reasonable but this is getting ridiculous, I tell you what we're going to do. I'm going to leave to take out some money at a cash machine and then I will come back here and pay you. Meanwhile you can keep this violent, threatening to bust eardrums loud girl as hostage, how does that sound?"

"Eh, we don't want her either."

"Well if you want to get rid of us, the sooner you let me go the better." Athrun reasoned and ended with saying, "And you get down from the table." to Cagalli.

"Alright… I'll take your word for it, plus if that's your girlfriend I pity you."

Athrun was about to say that there was no way in hell she was his girlfriend but stopped, he had to swallow his pride. Let's not stray away from the main objective: get cash, pay and get the hell out of there.

But when he finally got up, he found that it was hard to keep on his feet. Not only that, the surroundings was in a blur and his head was spinning. Perhaps it wasn't so strange, he had shared a whole bottle of whisky with Cagalli (of which he had the lion's share) and on top of that he had barely eaten anything since lunch. But he managed to pull himself together and concentrating intently on his feet he walked out of the bar. When he came out in and breathed in the late spring air, he felt a little refreshed. For a second he even toyed with the thought of just leaving Cagalli and go home but as expected his conscience wouldn't allow that. Plus even if she was a girl with a serious deformity and extremely irritating at that, she was just a little girl. He couldn't leave in a place like that.

After that he had only vague memories of what happened but apparently he managed to take out money and get them out of that place (hopefully to never return) but what he wanted to know was why Cagalli was in his flat. Why?

"Eh, what are you doing? That's the bedroom." Athrun tried to stop her but it was too late, she had already gone inside.

"Nothing, I'm just looking." Cagalli said and threw herself on his bed. She jumped a little on all fours as if to test the springs.

"Hey, get off my bed!" Athrun rushed to her and tried to drag her off the bed, but instead he found himself being dragged down. He was now in a position where he lay on top of Cagalli. How did this happen?

"Eh, s- sorry." He said confused and tried to get off her but instead Cagalli put her arms and legs around him pressing him down against her. Breasts, he could feel her breasts pressing against his chest! It was fortunate that he was drunk, it dulled him a little. And, which perhaps wasn't so fortunate he could feel something awakening inside him, something that was urging to throw away the little reason he had left and just let go.

All of a sudden Cagalli flipped them over so that she was on top, again he was shocked. He knew by now he shouldn't be shocked by anything that Cagalli did but he couldn't help it. This was an outrageous situation. Suddenly he froze as he could feel how a hand was following the inside of his legs, "W- wait. What are you doing?" He asked nervously. He kind of knew but he kind of hoped it wasn't really happening.

"I'm paying back my debt, just relax. It will feel good …at least that's what I've read."

…Aah, he was drunk, he was wasted. It felt impossible focus his thoughts, and he was hearing things. She said she was paying back her debt, hahaha…ha… "Uh..." he let out a little moan as her hand reached its apparent destination. His heart was beating so hard it felt like it was going to jump out of his chest, and he definitely didn't want that to happen. He was too young to die, he had an important project to finish, he wanted to get married and have children some day.

"…ng." He moaned again as Cagalli was touching him. He felt something run down his spine, he trembled, and he felt he was getting hard.

He looked at Cagalli who looked really happy, in an innocent kind of way. And he thought she really was quite the little devil looking like that while she was doing this to him.

She quickly took off all her clothes, too quickly for Athrun to have time to react (in his current state).

"…" the girl on top him was now naked… this was the closest he'd ever been to a naked woman, and apparently there still was a little sense left him in to feel embarrassed. He felt how his cheeks turned hot. While he was panicking about that he didn't notice that Cagalli had begun to take off his clothes.

"Wha- what?" he said as he was trying to come to terms with that she was actually unbuttoning his shirt. He felt his sanity was running out of him faster and faster, and if he wanted to stop this, this was probably the last chance. He took a deep breath and gather all his strength, grabbed Cagalli by the shoulders and yelled at her, "What the hell do you think you're doing!? You can't just force yourself into someone's house and go into the bedroom without permission and you definitely can't do this, taking off someone else's clothes and touching them without their consent!!! What you're doing is totally messed up, I want you to get out of here right now!"

Cagalli looked at him surprised for a moment then big tears started falling down her cheeks.  
Athrun suddenly felt guilty, he hadn't meant to make her cry. He had always tried to treat women with respect, it was one of the reasons he still was a virgin. He didn't want to play with women like they were toys and because he never had been in love it was natural that he never had had sex. Besides he never had any particular interest in sex, not even when he was a teenager. Maybe he was abnormal? The norm was that if you're guy you had to be interested in sex, and you had to sleep with many different partners or else there was something wrong with you. Sorry, he wasn't that interested in sex, he was more interested in love. He just hadn't found it yet, but when he did he wanted to give his first time to that person. Sure he had done it by himself and well sure it felt good, but it was nothing special. Not something worth humiliate yourself for, nothing to hurt other people for

"Cagalli…"

"…Ok, I get it. I won't bother you anymore. I know I'm not cute like other girls, everyone thinks I look like a boy. No wonder you're not attracted to me." Cagalli said looking incredibly hurt, still tears running. She wiped her tears with her little hands and got up from the bed and was about to leave the room when Athrun stopped her, "Wait, I didn't say you weren't cute. On the contrary, I think you're very cute."

"Really!?" Cagalli asked enthusiastically, the tears were mysteriously gone.

"But I can't sleep with you just because you're cute." Athrun tried to explain.

The smile suddenly disappeared from Cagalli's face again, "Why!? Is it because I'm not human?! That's it, isn't it?!" Cagalli shouted, and the tears, they were falling again.

"No, that's not it…" Athrun said vaguely. Truthfully he did have an issue with it, but he didn't want to hurt her more than necessary so he tried a white little lie.

Cagalli looked like she was pondering about something while eyeing him suspiciously.

"Anyway, you can't go out like that. At least put some clothes on before you leave!!" Athrun finally came to the heart of the matter, Cagalli was stark naked. And she was about to leave his flat. Naked!! No matter what, he wasn't going to let that happen.

"Hmm, I heard that humans are prejudiced against demons, but who knew it would be this bad…" Cagalli seemed to reason with herself.

"Oi, it has nothing to with preju…" Athrun tried to protest but the offended girl interrupted him.

"In that case it's my duty to fight against those prejudices and spread understanding amongst human and demons, starting with you Athrun."

"W- with me?"

"Yes! vV"

The next thing he knew Cagalli had dragged him back to the bed and pushed him down on it with her on top. Hey, wasn't this exactly the position they had been in before he had stopped her the last time!? He felt like all energy was running out of him, hahaha, she was taking off his shirt. Oh, now she was sucking on his nipples… No!! This was not how it was supposed to be. But oddly it felt so good, it was getting very hard to doing anything about it.

"Cagalli, I said no!" He yelled at her as you would to a child and tried to push her away, but he had forgotten a crucial fact: he was wasted and in the end his resistance only came out half-assed. And as it turned out, Cagalli was surprisingly strong and she completely ignored Athrun's protests and proceeded by take off his trousers and his socks. Now he was in his underwear. Cagalli locked his legs with hers and grabbed his hands and brought them to her breasts. He tried to pull them back but Cagalli wouldn't let him, she kept her grip and pressed his hands harder against her. It felt unbelievably surreal, her breasts were so soft and it felt so good to touch them. He found himself wanting to touch more, and even though he knew it was wrong, he started to moving his hands carefully enjoying the feeling more and more.

I

Athrun sighed and he felt like crying, he had practically been (well kind of) raped by a crazy demon named Cagalli. He had gotten so drunk that he couldn't defend himself properly less think properly and she had used his state to take advantage of him. And what was more she had stolen his first time which he had been saving for his first love. Not that his first love had shown any intention to show herself so far, but that didn't change the fact that he felt devastated. This was not how he had pictured his first time to be, he had wanted it to be much more romantic and he had definitely not planned to be drunk. He had never felt so powerless before and the strength in his muscles seemed to escape along with his virginity. He fell back, and hit the back of his head in a bookshelf. It hurt so much he was speechless, he could just lie on the floor with his mouth open in a silent scream.

"Hey, are you alright?" Cagalli asked worriedly.

"Don't bother." Athrun muttered as he got up while in his mind he was making plans of making a great book burn in the yard.

"Where are you going?" Cagalli asked when he staggered away.

"Shower… And don't follow me!" Athrun said and closed the door behind him and locked. Who knew what that demon was capable of, he was sure she wasn't going to listen to what he said anyway, so he double-checked that the door really was locked. He took off his shorts and threw them into the laundry basket.

When he got into the shower he sighed, he had probably never appreciated a shower more than this before. As the warm water ran down his body he felt like he could think clearly again, almost like a withering flower that was given water and coming back to life.  
He sighed again, what was he going to do about the demon who was occupying his bedroom? He had to get her out of there somehow, he certainly hoped she wasn't planning on staying long.

He thought about her, it felt totally surreal and weird and just plain wrong that he just had slept with, not an ordinary girl, a demon. Maybe he was going crazy too, for actually believing she was a demon. He wondered if there was some kind of punishment for this, was he going to hell? Athrun wasn't particularly religious but on the other hand he certainly hadn't believed in demons until yesterday…

She really looked cute though, besides the horns which were, if not disgusting, at least hard to accept. It was too bad that her cuteness had nothing to do with her personality which wasn't cute at all. Her face was cute but her body was... womanly. He suddenly recollected last night, she on top where he could see everything. He felt how heat started to accumulate in the lower part of his body. This was embarrassing, he was getting hard just thinking about it. He tried to think about something else but it was in vain, images came mercilessly and he started remember her voice, how she smelled, how it felt when he was inside her… unconsciously he moved his hand and started to move it back and forth when he woke up from his fantasies and quickly let go and turned the water to "cold". What was he doing? He was acting like some teenager with raging hormones.

Maybe his mother was right, it was time to start dating and more actively try to find someone he could share his life with. The question was how and who. He had never asked somebody out so he didn't actually know how to go about doing it. Maybe he would ask Kira for advice, he had plenty of experience so he might have some tips.

He put on his bathrobe and carefully opened the door and peeked out into the bedroom, the coast seemed to be clear, the demon wasn't there. Quickly he ran out of the bathroom, he had to put on some clothes quickly. He groaned when he saw his favourite suit lying in a pile on the floor, he took it up and as expected it was full of wrinkles, he couldn't wear that now. He decided to take it with him and hand it in to the dry cleaner's on his lunch break. He settled for another suit and quickly dressed and while he was at it he gathered the bedclothes and threw it into the washing machine. He decided he was going to get rid of all evidence that something ever happened here, he was going to treat it like it never happened.

He wondered where Cagalli had gone, he noticed that her clothes was lying on the floor and groaned again, it probably meant that she still was here and still wasn't wearing anything. He was about to pick up her clothes when he felt a strange smell, something was burning. He dropped her clothes again and rushed out to the kitchen and he was totally taken aback by what he saw. His normally so clean kitchen was in an unbelievable mess, it was hard to imagine how it could become so wrecked in such a short time. Leaving that aside, there was Cagalli standing by the stove cooking something that it came black smoke from, wearing nothing but an apron. Nothing but an apron! What was this, some kind of twisted x-rated movie!?  
For a short moment he could just stand there dumbfounded, if there was something more ecchi than this he would like to know…. No, no, wrong, he didn't want to know. He definitely didn't want to know, not over his dead body. But at the same time it looked so ridiculous he probably would have burst out laughing if it wasn't for the emergency that was at hand.

"What the hell are you doing!?" He rushed to the stove and turned the heat off and moved the frying pan away from the hot plate.

"I'm making breakfast."

"Does this look like something eatable?" Athrun pointed at the unrecognizable black things in the pan.

"I'm sorry, I wanted to make eggs, but somehow I turned up the heat too much and then they started to get dark and then I kind of panicked and I didn't know what to do so I didn't do anything."

"Do you want to set the place on fire you idiot!? Promise me you don't go near this again, do not try to cook. I repeat, do not try to cook again."

"Bu-"

"No buts, promise me."

"…I promise."

He made a deep sigh again, what was he doing making her promise something like that? It suggested she was going to come here again and that was something he really, from the bottom of his heart, wanted to avoid. She messed up his pace, it felt like he was becoming someone else. He had always treated girls with respect and now he was getting irritated and yelling at her over every little thing.

"Anyway go and put on some clothes, please." He managed to smile a little tiredly at her. And just that made Cagalli look much happier. She smiled and nodded and Athrun turned away as she ran out of the kitchen. He wasn't prepared to become a hentai just yet, correction, he didn't want to become a hentai at all.

He made a quick glance at the clock on the wall, started to load the coffee maker suddenly stopping and slowly turned to look at the clock again. It felt like his whole body turned into ice. He couldn't believe it, it was already nine o'clock! How the hell could it be so much? Didn't the alarm clock ring? He felt like just panic but he forced himself to think this through in a rational manner. Firstly he had pack all his documents making sure he hadn't forgotten anything, than he had to get Cagalli out of the flat immediately without breaking anything, then he had to run for all he was worth to the station and then… he would still be late… But there was no reason to further the damage. Everything would be fine, he was cool, he had everything under control…

"Why are you pouring water on the worktop?" Cagalli asked as she came into the kitchen again (properly dressed this time).

"Eh? Uah!" He noticed what he was doing, not concentrating and looking at another direction had made him miss the coffee maker and pour water beside it instead.

"You didn't hear the alarm clock?" He asked Cagalli as he hurriedly wiped up the water.

"Alarm clock?"

"Yeah, it's beside my bed, usually it rings at 6:30 but I didn't hear it today."

"Oh, that? I turned it off."

"Y o u. D i d. W h a t?!"

"You looked so tired I wanted you to sleep a little longer."

"That's it, come with me!" Athrun grabbed her arm and dragged her to the hall.

"What up with you?"

"Put on your shoes!" Athrun ordered as he made sure he had his laptop and all the important documents with him and put on his shoes.

When Cagalli was finished he dragged her out of the flat and locked the door. As they rode the elevator Athrun yelled at her,

"Why is it so impossible for you to ever think about the consequences your actions might have to others!?"

"I was just trying to be nice…"

"Well if that's your way of being nice, it's nothing but a bother. Because of your little "kindness" I'm going to be late for work. Now when we're extremely busy!"

"Sorry…"

"Well sorry just doesn't cut it. Do you have any idea how much trouble you've caused me? I've only known you for a few hours and you have caused me more trouble than I've ever been in before in my whole life. You're nothing but a nuisance! I don't want to see you here ever again!" He spat out and after making sure Cagalli was out of the building he ran to station without turning back. It was going to be another busy day…

* * *


	2. And You're Supposed to Be My Best Friend

Öhh, vad ska jag säga... Tja! Hi! It's been a very very very long time since I started this story and I haven't updated since then. The most pathetic thing is that this chapter's been finished for a while but I haven't updated despite of that. Somehow it has felt hard to upload ...and now you're starting to worry if this is worth reading, which perhaps you should! It's been a while since I wrote anything.

* * *

**And You're Supposed to Be My Best Friend!**

"Athrun! …You look like shit." Kira gave him a warm welcome as he came into the office.

"Thanks for the compliment, that's exactly how I feel by the way." Athrun answered sarcastically.

"…Anyway, where have you been? Coming late, not answering the phone… We were starting to get worried you'd got into an accident."

"…I overslept." Athrun said and took out his mobile from his pocket.

Kira widened his eyes in astonishment but recollected himself, "Hmm, so even Athrun can oversleep, I thought you'd been hit by a car or something"

"Wha-! Of course I can oversleep, I'm human too if you hadn't noticed. Aren't you jumping into conclusions? Why is it more likely that I've been hit by a car than I overslept?"

"But you've never come late once as long as I've known you. The rumours are already spreading like wildfire."

Athrun made a deep sigh, "You know, I've never been hit by a car either."

"Well yeah… but that's usually something you only get once."

"Stop the bad jokes will you?"

"I'm not joking, it's true isn't it?"

Athrun was about to protest when they were interrupted by a colleague "Ah Athrun, Yamato you owe me money!"

"Damn…" Kira muttered and shouted back, "You'll get them later."

"What was that about?" Athrun asked confused.

"Nothing, absolutely nothing!" Kira said a little too quickly.

"Really?" Athrun eyed him suspiciously.

"What are you acting so suspicious for? It's nothing really, just a little bet."

"A bet? What kind of bet?" Athrun asked as he turned his eyes to his mobile again. It was turned off, and when he turned it on again he noticed that the battery was almost full… It wasn't hard to guess who was behind that little trick. None other than the little devil who made him late by turning off the alarm clock, there could be no one else.

"Aah, you wouldn't want to know…" Kira answered ambiguously again.

Athrun looked up from his mobile, "Try me."

"Argh stop questioning me!"

"I'm not questioning you, it's just that you not telling me what it is, makes me curious."

"Athrun! You're alive. …Kira you owe me." Another colleague who just noticed them shouted.

"You don't have to tell me already…" Kira answered irritated.

"Kira… I think you got some explaining to do." Athrun said threateningly.

"Oh, look at the time, didn't you have a meeting?"

"Oh, shit!" Athrun looked at the clock and realised he had forgotten his meeting and what's more because of what happened yesterday he hadn't gotten the papers in order.

"Ok, I've got to rush."

"Have a nice meeting." Kira said and smiled as he waved him off.

"And Kira, don't think this conversation is over. You better have an explanation ready till I come back!"

"He couldn't just let it slip could he?" He heard Kira mutter, as he had thought, Kira was up to something the question was exactly what.

I

It was hard to concentrate during the meeting, firstly he became painfully reminded of the fact that he hadn't eaten anything since yesterday lunch. Athrun wasn't very interested in eating, and it wasn't uncommon that he forgot to eat. Often it was other people who told him to go and get something to eat because of the foul mood he tended to get in when he lacked energy.

Secondly it was very hard not to think about yesterday. He wondered what Cagalli was doing now. He had let his emotions get the better of him, maybe he had been too harsh? After all she had only tried to be nice, even if it had caused him a lot of trouble. He couldn't help but worry a little since it was more than obvious that Cagalli lacked something vital in the common sense department. He had warned her when they where at that pub but what were the chances that she had actually listened to him? He had a feeling they weren't high at all. Yeah, most likely she had forgotten everything about it by now.

Yes, he actually was worried, she was a demon. Ok, he had to admit she was much stronger than an ordinary girl (he imagined, it wasn't like he had battled with a girl before. But the image he had of girls was that they were weak… Oh, no of course it wasn't like that, he was a feminist just as much as the next person, but when it came to physical strength there was a clear difference, really).

But it didn't matter how strong she was if maybe the police were after her. If the wrong person would to see her horns what would happen then? He imagined her being captured by some secret government agency and locked into a hidden lab where they did all kinds of cruel experiments to her and let her sleep in a cage with an electric collar around her neck. Even if she was annoying she didn't deserve that, she was a good person/demon. What had he done?!

But she was gone now and there was nothing he could do to help her. After being told that no one in their right mind would come back. Honestly he didn't know what was wrong with him. Why had he been so rude towards her, he who prided himself of always treating women respectfully? He got very irritated with himself, it was a failure. He hadn't come further than this, he was still a brat.

"Athrun?" he heard a voice calling him back to reality.

"Eh?"

"Athrun, are you alright?" Murrue looked at him worriedly. Athrun was the only one sitting down, everybody else was getting ready to leave the meeting room.

"Eh, yeah I'm fine." Athrun gave the standard answer, when in truth he wasn't fine. He hadn't experienced it often, born in a rich country and into a family which was in no way lacking in means, but he almost felt like he could kill for something to eat.

"You look a little pale."

"I'm fine really, I had a little trouble falling asleep last night that's all." In way that was true, he did have trouble falling asleep but not for the usual reason. He was sure it had been late when Cagalli at last had let him go but when at that time he had fallen asleep in the blink of an eye. Probably he hadn't slept so well in years, it was the hunger and the unavoidable hangover that was killing him.

"If I know you correctly you probably haven't eaten anything either?"

"I haven't…" Athrun said a little embarrassed, it wasn't Murrue's job to make sure that he ate properly. He was 24 now and it was pretty pathetic if he couldn't take care of himself.

"You have to take better care of yourself, Athrun. If you get sick it will become a problem not only for me but the whole department, I'm counting on you for this project."

"Yeah, thanks I will."

Athrun walked back to his desk. He looked at the clock, it was 11.30, it was really too early for lunch but this was a special case. He left his documents the desk and was about to leave when Kira asked "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to have lunch."

"Now?"

"Yes, now. Do you have a problem with that?"

"Not particularly, I'll come with you."

I

"So Athrun… did something happen?"

"W- what do you mean?"

"Hmm, nothing in particular but you've been acting strange all day. Showing up late to work, turning off your mobile, going to lunch this early, it isn't like you."

The wheels in Athrun's head were working hard, he had to come up with a good excuse, he couldn't tell Kira the truth. That he had slept with a girl (demon) he had just met. He decided to go with a half-lie,

"The truth is, I've had trouble sleeping lately" (true) "maybe it's the stress" (it was the excuse he'd heard most people use) "I thought maybe it would help me fall asleep so I drank a little alcohol yesterday" (understatement, he had drunk like there was no tomorrow) "And I probably drank too much…" (not probably, definitely)

"…Athrun, are you drinking alone in your flat? Do I have to tell you how pathetic that is? You need to get a girl or at least get laid, I tell you it will get rid of your sleeping problems in no time."

"…Ahem, enough about me" Athrun said anxious to get away from this particular subject, "You still haven't told me what that bet was about."

"Are you still fussing about that? I told you it was nothi-"

"Kira! Athrun!" someone called out to them.

"Let's go Athrun, you wanted to have lunch early right?" Kira grabbed Athrun's arm and started walking very fast.

"Eh, where are you going so fast? Wasn't that Mwu?" Athrun asked and shook off Kira's hand. In comparison, Cagalli's grip had been much firmer and harder to shake off a (needless) thought went through his head. Just how strong was she anyway?

"Where are you going so fast, Kira?" Mwu's voice came from right behind them now.

"I'm not going anywhere. Why would I be going anywhere?" Kira answered innocently.

"I certainly hope so, you owe me and I don't like having people owing me things especially money. Pay up!" Mwu smiled but it didn't reach his eyes.

"Sigh, alright you'll get your money." Kira reluctantly said at last. He didn't look pleased but handed the money anyway.

"Mwu, what is this bet about? I'm kind of curious… because all kinds of people have been after Kira today." Athrun asked.

"Hmm?" Mwu stopped counting his money and looked at Athrun, "I bet you're curious, actually it's about you."

"About me?!"

"Hasn't Kira told you?"

"No he hasn't…" Athrun gave Kira an angry glare.

"It's probably one of those things that aren't very easy to say to your best friend. Well I think you have the right to know so I'll tell you…"

"Humph… he just had to go and tell had he…" Athrun heard Kira muttering but ignored it.

"You see, we got worried when you didn't show up on time this morning, it had never happened before right. And when we couldn't reach your mobile we obviously got even more worried. And then one thing led to another and we got into discussion whether you overslept or gotten into an accident. This is where Kira came up with the idea of making a bet, he was fairly convinced you'd gotten into an accident while most of the other's thought you had just overslept including me."

"And you're supposed to be my best friend." Athrun said sharply.

"What can I say, I couldn't even imagine you being late." Kira answered looking truly sorry but it was unclear if the reason was remorse or simply because he had lost money.

"All the more so you should be worried not starting making bets."

"There, there, I'm sure we're all relieved to see you're alright, the money is just a nice little bonus hehehe." Mwu gave Athrun a pat on the shoulder.

"…" Athrun looked at Mwu with tired eyes. How did Mwu know that Athrun was late? They weren't even in the same department. Exactly from where did they get the time to hang around gossiping about him instead of working? The thought had occurred before but he was amazed that this company actually was able to deliver anything and even produce a profit.

"Now you have to treat me lunch Athrun." Kira said sulkily after they had left Mwu.

"What?! Why do I have to treat you lunch?" Athrun protested.

"I lost a lot of money because of you."

"So what do you think I should have done, walk in front of a car just so you could win a bet?"

"You could at least have broken a leg or something…"

"You… Anyway I'm not buying you lunch."

"Keh, stingy."

"You're the last person I want to hear that from. Isn't it I who should be pissed off? You certainly have no right to complain, you got into this fix splendidly by yourself."

"Alright, alright I was only joking."

"I'm too hungry for jokes right now."

"Aha, hence the unusually early lunch."

"Well, you're correct as usual you genius detective."

"There's no need to be sarcastic… So what are we having?"

I

The lunch was quick and the afternoon was busy. Even though he had incredibly much to do it felt like every single one in the department had to come and ask him about every petty little problem they had. Athrun felt a growing irritation but couldn't bring himself to say no. Why was it that not a single woman in this office seemed to know how to work the copying machine? And why was it that that every single one had to come to him to ask how to do it? Kira was muttering something about Athrun being too thick to deserve to be so popular but he was sure it was only Kira talking bullshit as usual. When he finally had began to work seriously without interruption a familiar but at the same time terrifying scream was heard,

"Athrun!"

"Heine…" Athrun said and tried to brace himself for what was coming. He had been wondering when Heine would show up, because it was a question of when not if.

"Athrun! I'm so glad you're alive." Heine said and threw his arms around Athrun.

"I'm glad you're glad, but could you please let me go?"

"Hey Athrun get your hands off my boyfriend!" Another voice was heard.

"Meer… Shouldn't it be the other way around? Couldn't you tell your boyfriend to get off me?"

"Heine? Is that how it is? Do you prefer Athrun over me? Don't tell me you're gay too? Have you tricked me all this time?" Meer said in a crying voice.

"What are you talking about baby? You know there's no one else for me but you. Don't you trust me?" Heine let go of Athrun and embraced Meer instead.

"Of course I trust you Heine. Sorry for doubting you even for a second."

"So you forgive me then?"

"If you give me a kiss."

"Well that can easily be arranged."

"I'm not gay, and could you please make out someplace else than in the middle of the office."

"Don't be so stiff Athrun, it's only love and that is all. Love is a beautiful thing, it's nothing to be embarrassed about."

"I'm not embarrassed, I'm just saying this is a working place and thus as employees we are here to work."

"Athrun is only envious of our love, darling."

"I'm not envious! And what are you doing here in the first place? Shouldn't you be in your own department, working, right now?"

"I have been working… that's why I couldn't come and see you right away… But I want you to know Athrun, I really wanted to! When rumours went that you'd gone missing I didn't know what to do."

"Eh, Heine I don't know what to say…" Athrun said a little shocked, who knew that Heine cared this much about him?

"Don't worry darling, if Athrun would die I would comfort you."

"Would you?! Meer, you're the best girlfriend one could have."

"Oh, Heine you're not only saying that?"

"What are you talking about? Of course I mean it, I'm dead serious!"

"Heine, you're the best boyfriend ever!"

"Meer!"

"Heine!"

They were in each other's arms again… So Heine's concern wasn't any deeper than that, he should have known. Heine was always bullshitting, non stop, never endingly, to the point where Athrun became seriously afraid that his ears would fall off. He had a feeling it had only become worse since Heine hooked up with Meer. They were a fearsome duo alright and if you weren't careful you would be caught in their pace and if you were, there was no telling when they would let you go. He shuddered unconsciously.

"Anyway," Heine said still with one hand on Meer's bum, "I know this guy who's also gay and single. If you want to I can hook you up with him. What do you say, why not try a blind date? I promise he's good looking though his hairstyle is a little… well… Anyway he has a short temper but he's really a nice guy. I think you two would be a perfect match."

"Haven't I told you hundreds of times already that I'm not gay!?"

"Because you deny it so much makes it even more suspicious, you know it's like those conservative politicians who condemn homosexuality only later to be found with an orange in their mouths and a prostitute in the other end."

"I'm not like that! Shut up shut up shut up lalalala I don't want to hear anything more." Athrun screamed and put his hands to his ears."

"That's why we can draw the conclusion it's because you're ashamed of the truth you deny it so desperately."

"How? Why? I don't see the connection?"

"Hahaha, Athrun you need to relax." Kira chuckled amusedly.

"Why should I relax?! Would you relax, if you were in my position?!" Athrun retorted angrily.

"I would relax if I was in your position? 24 years old and still **a virgin**, you have got to be kidding me. I would sit alone in my flat trying to wash away my worries with alcohol not be able to sleep, desperately trying to subdue the rumours that I'm gay… wait that would be just like you!"

"Ha ha, very funny."

"Athrun…" Meer grabbed Athrun's shoulders, "I had no idea it was this bad! I'm sorry I can't be of any help but I want you to know if I didn't have Heine already I would gladly have helped you get rid of **your virginity**!"

"Honey if I didn't know I could trust you I would be a little jealous." Heine said.

"You know I will never give myself to anyone else again."

"Oh, I love you Meer."

"I love you too Heine."

"But of course there is that other reason I don't have to worry, Athrun's **g-a-y**!"

"Don't shout that out loud in the middle of the office!"

"But you know Athrun, I say the same thing as Meer. I'm sorry I can't be of any help, but if I didn't have Meer I would gladly have…"

"Don't say another word. Get back to your own department. Stop pestering me. Get some work done for fuck's sake."

"Oops, it seems like he's really getting angry now. You better go now before he erupts." Kira said.

"Hm, maybe it was too early?" Heine muttered as he and Meer walked out of there hand in hand.

"These things have to take their time, you can't force someone to come out of the closet I guess."

"Grrrr!" Athrun gnarled after them.

"I don't know why you get so agitated, you're only making it worse. You know he's just teasing you, you only provide him with the reaction he wants." Kira turned to Athrun.

"I know that! …it's just that I get so irritated I can't think straight. I'm not good with people like him. And besides I'm not sure his only trying to tease me, I think he actually believes I'm gay. Even my mom suspects I'm gay…"

"Well if you're bothered by it, there's one easy solution to the problem."

"If it was true I wouldn't be so bothered, it just feels so frustrating that people don't listen to what I'm saying."

"That's the thing, if words don't do the trick show it to them instead. Ask Meyrin in the reception out, I know she's been checking you out."

"I don't know where you get your conviction from, I haven't noticed anything."

"…that's because you're practically blind when comes to these things. I can't believe how thick you are, believe it or not there is no one in this building who is more popular among the girls as you."

"I find that embarrassing and hard to believe, besides no one has ever asked me out or anything…"

"…well sure, everyone thinks you're gay."

"…then how come no guy has made a pass at me?"

"…true, but isn't that just because you're too thick and don't notice?"

"…I'm not thick."

"If you're not thick you're clumsy, inexperienced and blind."

"Thanks."

"You're welcome."

Except for the black aura that came from Kira and the curses that occasionally were heard everything was peaceful though the people who had won money from him looked nervous and on edge. And Athrun thought he wouldn't want to be in their shoes, there was no telling what could happen if Kira had ill feelings towards you.

I

What followed after that was two weeks from hell (even if Athrun had become uncomfortable with using that terminology). Why was it that no matter how well you had planned everything and worked your ass off to avoid it, you always had to work until you almost dropped when a deadline was approaching? Of course there was no time to think about Cagalli and that whole episode was comfortably placed in a corner of his mind where his thoughts didn't reach. The whole dating and getting a girlfriend thing was also put on hold.

Working this hard wasn't so bad after all, he was too into his work to worry about things and to focused to be bothered by annoying people like Heine or worse Jona who for some reason had a grudge against him.

But when it finally was over, there was a celebration which he left probably a little too early and went home, showered and went straight to bed. He was exhausted and unusually fell asleep at the blink of an eye. When he was awakened by the alarm clock the morning after it felt like he hadn't had a wink and he seriously thought about taking the day off. Considering there had been a party last night he probably wouldn't be the only one, and besides the overtime people had put in started to reach insane levels. But he forced himself up anyway, there were still things left to do, some cleaning up and he wanted to talk with everybody involved too. They would have an evaluation meeting later but he still didn't feel comfortable with just leaving it at this point.

At three o'clock he decided he would leave for the day, even if he stayed he wouldn't get anything done anyway. He had been working so much lately he went home straight to bed every night. Only working and trying to get some sleep in between was taking its toll, it was lucky his vacation was coming soon. And it was when he was on his way to the lift he saw that blonde hair he couldn't forget even if he wanted to. At first he wanted to believe it was a mistake but as he came closer he had to admit there was no doubt about it: there was Cagalli talking with Dullindal.

What the f—k was she doing here? Why?

"Cagalli!"

"Athrun!" Cagalli answered happily as she noticed him.

"Eh, do you two know each other?" Dullindal asked surprised.

"Yes, we met a couple a weeks ago and then we-" Cagalli started but was interrupted by a very stiff looking Athrun.

"Could you please excuse us for a minute?" Athrun said and grabbed Cagalli and dragged her away with him.

"Hmm, well I don't mind but…" Dullindal said but Athrun and Cagalli were already too far away to hear him.

"Athrun!"

"…"

"Athrun, where are we going?"

"Get in." he said and pushed her into an empty meeting room.

"So?" Athrun said as he closed the door behind them.

"So, what?"

"So, what the hell are you doing here?"

"Ah! Right, here you go Athrun." Cagalli grinned and tried to hand him a bundle of bills.

Athrun didn't accept them but just looked at her blankly and said, "What's this for?"

"I owe you money right? Here, now I can pay you back!" Cagalli said happily and urged him to take the money.

"I said I didn't mind didn't I? And besides this is much more than I paid, there is no way I can accept this money."

"Why?!" Cagalli smile changed into a disappointed frown.

"It's way too much. I don't need your money so you don't have to worry."

"Bu- But I want to pay you!"

"Didn't you hear me? I don't want it!"

"Bu- but I was thinking about why you got so angry and then I remembered you had to pay even though I was the one who was supposed treat you. So I made up my mind to pay you back no matter what!"

"You're wrong that's not the reason I got angry." Athrun sighed.

"Then why?! I don't want you to hate me!"

"I don't hate you Cagalli…"

"Really?! Then let me stay at your place, I promise I'll be better!"

"W- wait, who said anything about staying at my place?"

"The truth is, I don't have any where to go right now and it will only be temporary until I've found something. I didn't think it would be this hard to find somewhere to stay"

"…Did you make any preparations before coming here? No money, no flat? …Anyway you can't stay at my place."

"Why?! You said you didn't hate me."

"For a lot of reasons, I don't even know where to begin."

"I tried to sleep in a park but it was hard because all of the strange humans waking me up all the time…"

"You slept in a park?!" Athrun resisted the urge to grab hold of her shoulders and shake some sense into her. It wouldn't help anyway.

"Hmm, yeah?"

"Are you out of your mind?! You can't sleep in a park!"

"Yeah I know, people wake you up all the time."

"…That's not the problem! It's dangerous, who knows what could happen!"

"Eh, why?"

"…Ahem, I don't want to get into details but I assure you it isn't pleasant. And besides you need to be more careful with those ho…rns… eh…? Where are your horns?!"

"Ah!! You noticed?! Look Athrun I learnt to draw them in! It's all thanks to you, because you warned me about showing my horns I practiced really hard for a couple of hours and then I learnt it!"

"…which means you haven't put many minutes into learn it until now have you?"

"But I never saw any real reason to until I met you! Thanks Athrun!"

"…you're welcome …I guess."

"So, I really need your help!"

"I guess I have no choice… But it will only be temporary and you will sleep in a separate bed!"

"Yay, thanks Athrun!" From the excitement? Two horns popped up in Cagalli's forehead and she lifted him up from the floor in a hug. Two thought ran through Athrun's mind the first one was that he probably would regret this. The other was the weirdness of having a girl lifting him from the floor. No, she definitely didn't fit in Athrun's image of what a girl was.

"Hey, hey Cagalli I understand you're happy but let me down will you?"

"Oh, sorry." Cagalli looked a little guilty.

"And another thing, your horns have popped out again."

"What?!"

"What am I going to do with you?" Athrun said and tousled Cagalli's hair and smiled a little.

Cagalli looked at him surprised at first but then smiled happily and Athrun couldn't help but to think that her smile really was cute.

"You still haven't told me what you're doing here." he asked with his hand still in her hair.

"Didn't I tell you? Starting from today I work here!"

"………WHAT?!"

* * *

And that's it... it has it's crude moments... And I think everyone who has read "The High School Prince" recognise Heine's character... but I couldn't resist, I like Heine this way. Keep on bullying Athrun, Heine, Meer, (Kira)! But of course it's out of love. We all love Athrun don't we. 


	3. Of Raspberries and Elephants

Hello, fellow asucaga-fans and others. It has certainly been a while since last time, but I hope this will be a come back for me. I still haven't graduated from my obsession with asucaga, so of course I want to keep writing fanfic, although I've had my share of writer's block for a while. But I'm hoping things will go more smoothly now.

I've deleted the character introduction in the first chapter, whatever I wrote in that has no relevance to the story anymore. I just found it restricting and that the characters move towards another direction anyway. If you haven't already, please just forget about it. I've also made some other small changes in chapter 2.

I got a question in a review about what "vV" means, and the answer is that it means "heart". Pretty commonly used on the Japanese websites I've been to. I kind of thought it looked funny so I couldn't resist using it, sorry if it caused any confusion.

And about the reviews, my goal is to answer all reviews I get, now I haven't exactly done that. For some stories, I didn't answer them unfortunately and I feel bad about it. I will answer all signed reviews for this story though, but since it has taken so long I want to prioritize uploading the chapter. I will start answering the reviews after that. So thank you for reviewing, it really means a lot and it makes me happy.

Sorry to say, I won't be able to answer any messages I got before the summer/early summer because our mail server crashed around then and all my mails disappeared. I know, it's stupid but I didn't keep any backup. Sorry, about that.

* * *

**Chapter 3 - Of Raspberries and Elephants **

Athrun was standing in an open field, it was warm and he felt a light breeze tousle his hair. The same wind that made the grass bend. The field looked familiar but he couldn't exactly place from where, it was a nice field though, objectively speaking. To be exact, it was more like a meadow with the usual white and purple flowers that came with the season, bumblebees and bees where buzzing busily moving from flower to flower and different butterflies coloured the air with their bright colours.

Athrun didn't like butterflies or any other insects for that matter, that's why he couldn't eat honey. He could never understand how anyone could eat something that was collected by disgusting little insects, originally meant to be food to larva one might add. Sadly it also meant he couldn't eat raspberries either even though he loved the taste because raspberries attracted bugs.

It was now only a memory but he could still remember the horror from when he was still a little boy and his mom had picked raspberries from the garden. They were enjoying it with milk and sugar and suddenly after a few spoonfuls he had noticed a green bug floating around in the milk together with his raspberries in the spoon he was about to put into his mouth. The shock and repulsion made him scream and throw the spoon away from him. Unfortunately it landed in his father's bowl which made the milk splatter all over, and Patrick very angry. The trauma still hadn't left him till this day and he still couldn't look at raspberry shrubbery without shuddering.

But returning to the present situation, as much as his standing in this probably tick-infested meadow was an enigma, the real question was what the huge elephant was doing there. In this field there shouldn't be any elephants, elephants belonged in the zoo. But apparently this one hadn't heard of that.

At first it didn't feel threatening because it had its back turned against him and was at a secure distance (he hoped). But suddenly it turned around its head and glared at him with sharp eyes. He swallowed hard and for a moment he could just watch as it started to run towards him. This was not good, he knew that no matter how he tried to, there was no way he was going to outrun an elephant.

Shit, this was why he didn't care for animals he thought, although that didn't make any sense because he never had been in a situation like this before. The only bigger animal he had seen in the wild before had to be rabbits (besides birds and fish), and being run down by a rabbit didn't seem very likely, and so far he hadn't.

You _could_ argue that at least he should have seen some road kill, a fox or a badger or two. Or at least rats in the underground. But when Athrun was little he didn't look out the window that much when he rode in a car with his parents, he rather played games or read a book or a comic (which sometimes led him to throw up since he had a sensitive stomach.) And he had never hit something himself since he got his own licence, perhaps partly because he didn't drive that often since he mostly took the bus or the underground. About the rats, he had probably just been lucky this far.

He could feel its weight pressing on him and it was getting harder and harder to breathe, this was it. Was he going to die? Like this? Crushed by an elephant? He hadn't seen that coming.

Absentmindedly he wondered if elephants usually smelled like newly washed hair, like this one did. It was a little unexpected, he had expected it to smell, well, more like an animal. Come to think of it, Cagalli showered last night. The elephant used the same shampoo as Cagalli, that's a funny coincidence…

It was getting hard to breath, he closed his eyes.

He opened his eyes. Blonde…

Blonde!

Cagalli!

In an instant he was wide awake. –It wasn't an elephant but Cagalli who was on top of him …wearing nothing but knickers sleeping soundly. With her horns popped out –they had a tendency to do that while she was sleeping …no it wasn't he who peeked on her when she was sleeping, she was the one who came to him!

So that's why it smelled so good. He should have known an elephant wouldn't be this soft he thought absentmindedly while her hair was finding its way into his mouth. He tried to spit it out, before he realised he could just push her aside, she was no elephant. Still not quite awake after all apparently, his mind didn't work as well as it used to.

"Cagalli!" he said sternly and shook her a bit.

"Mm, Athrun? Good morning…"

"Thanks to you my morning hasn't been very good thus far, are you trying to kill me?"

"Eh?"

"Why do you come to my bed every night? Haven't I've told you have to sleep in your own? And this time you even lay yourself on top of me, I thought I would die from suffocation!"

"Sorry, I don't do it on purpose... When I wake up I just find myself in your bed." Cagalli apologised and continued, "By the way Athrun, are you sure you don't want me to blow you? It looks like you have an erect…"

"No I don't want a blow-job and it just gets like this in the morning, it's like this for all men."

"…Not that you have anything to do with it!" He added embarrassed. He thought he would have gotten pretty used to Cagalli's peculiarities by now, but without fail she managed to shock… no surprise him… everyday. "And get some clothes on!" he continued.

"Hmm, is it? I never knew… I just assumed… but no one has ever said no before except you," Cagalli looked like she was searching her memory.

"…" Something didn't seem right, what Cagalli had just said seemed to imply she had done this before, an unknown number of times… But for some reason he had gotten the impression she had been a virgin too… But why? He searched his memory (even if he had been dead drunk he wasn't the blessed kind who forgot all the stupid things they did when they had been intoxicated), she had said something… Something outrageous of course, that first night when they had sex… That was it! He remembered! She had without doubt said that it would feel good, at least that's what she had read. If she had real life experience she wouldn't have to consult books, surely.

"…What?" Cagalli asked when she apparently noticed he was looking at her not saying anything.

"…You weren't a virgin?" he asked hesitantly not knowing if he should look at her or focus on his suddenly very interesting finger nails.

"What are you talking about, why should I be a virgin?" Cagalli asked clearly confused.

"Eh, well because of what you said, I assumed I was the first… But thinking back, I guess I shouldn't." No way would a virgin behave like that even if she was a demon.

"But you're my first," she said.

"What you're saying is very confusing and contradicting." Athrun looked at her doubtingly.

"You're the first human I've been with I meant. I'd never been with a human man before, but I've read you are very similar to demons."

"Ehehe, is that so." He laughed a little dryly, was it his imagination but that didn't sound very flattering did it?

He fell into silence again, there was something about this that wasn't amusing. It was confusing, it wasn't a sensation he was familiar with. It was just that, he didn't like being one in a long row of men (well, they had to be classified as such even if they were demons). Maybe he was more conservative than he had thought. Maybe he should go and make a check-up for venereal deceases.

"What's it now?" Cagalli must have picked up on his suddenly worsened mood.

"Nothing, it's just I think you should stop doing such things. I don't know how it is with demons but humans usually only have sex with people they're in love with." Of course this was not true in most cases… but Cagalli wouldn't suspect anything…

"At least I don't want to have sex with someone I'm not in love with, and I think you shouldn't either."

"…hmm, humans really are strange."

"Why is that so strange?"

"But it feels good to have sex, so you want to have it all the time. Don't you agree?"

"No, like I just said, I only want to have sex with someone I'm in love with."

"So if you were in love, you'd want to have sex?"

"…I guess," he confessed though somehow he felt he had fallen into some kind of trap.

"Alright, in that case, fall in love with me Athrun!" she exclaimed, jumping up and down in his bed, making her breasts also jump up and down, making it hard for Athrun to know where to focus his gaze. But more importantly:

"Wha-?! I can't fall in love with someone on demand, and besides it doesn't mean anything if the person doesn't love me back," he protested.

"This is getting more and more complicated…" Cagalli scratched her head looking confused.

"Well, love is complicated, everyone thinks so …of course I've never been in love, but that's a problem itself …a lot of shit has happened to me because of it."

"I've never been in love either! We're kind of similar in a way don't you think?"

"…you and me? I don't think so, that's probably the only thing we have in common and it's not enough to make us similar."

Before Cagalli had time to answer his without doubt insulting statement (although it was unclear if Athrun was aware of his rudeness) his phone rang, interrupting them. While he got up from his bed rushing to answer it in time Cagalli took the opportunity to roll over to his side and making a cocoon for herself with his quilt.

"Mom?" Athrun read out loud from the display, "What does she want…" he said while hesitantly pressing the yes-button, the foreboding feeling he got even made him forget to about Cagalli who was taking too much liberty and stretching the limits of his hospitality.

"…Hello?" he answered hesitantly.

"Athrun?"

"Hi mom, what's up?" he said as casually as he could but…

"That's what I would like to ask you. Why haven't we heard from you in two months?" There it came.

"Eh… I've been extremely busy." This was no lie, but for the last week things had slowed down and everyone had entered their summer working mode which usually meant they didn't exert themselves too much. Athrun, of course, was too serious to allow himself to take it easy but nonetheless there were much less things that needed to be done. So regardless of his will, the working load was reduced considerably.

"So busy you couldn't give us one call?" His mother continued to press him. To himself he thought that if they wanted to hear from him that much they could have called him themselves instead of waiting for him to do it. But he didn't dare, or rather didn't have the energy to take that argument.

In these situations it was best to apologise, "I'm sorry, I meant to call but it kind of slipped my mind… Anyway, how are things?"

"Oh, actually we're on our way to you right now, we'll be there in about 30 minutes."

"What! In half an hour?!" Even if it wasn't the right time to do so, he started to panic. They would be here in thirty minutes, he looked at Cagalli who was looking at him curiously and felt how all power to do anything about this terrible situation ran out of him. Even if he kicked out Cagalli or made her hide in a closet, there was no time to remove all evidence of her living here scattered all over this flat.

"Athrun, what's wrong?" Cagalli asked concernedly, she probably had noticed his distress…

He knew she only meant well, he knew that but why?! Why did she have to say something?!

He hurriedly covered the microphone and told her angrily, "Shh, don't say anything else while I'm on the phone."

"Mom?" he asked hesitantly after removing his hand from the microphone.

"…" the other end was disturbingly silent.

"Mom? Are you still there?"

"Athrun, I'm hanging up now, see you in twenty minutes… Patrick, can't you drive any faster?"

"Twenty minutes?! That's not what you sai-…" he tried to argue but he was interrupted by a click.

"Fuck, she hung up on me!" This was bad, this was bad, this was seriously fucking bad. She had definitely heard Cagalli, no doubt about it. He resigned, when it had come to this there was only one option left and as much as he disliked it he had to do it. His mother would interpret the situation in a, for her, favourable way anyway.

"Was that your mother? What did she want?" Cagalli asked innocently completely unaware of the mess she had put them in. He had to calm down, there was no use taking this out on Cagalli and besides he needed her cooperation now. But first he couldn't resist telling her off a little because he had told her before and she had to start to listen to what he said,

"Cagalli what have I said about speaking while I'm on the phone?"

"…you said I can't do that."

"Yes, I said that didn't I, so why did you ignore that simple request? Need I remind you this is my flat and if you're going to live here you have to follow my rules?" he yelled at her and he got a funny feeling he was starting to becoming more and more like a nagging parent… The influence from Cagalli was truly frightening… He didn't want to feel like a parent to a girl he had had sex with… Perhaps teacher in life was better? …No, that would also be like a forbidden relationship, teacher-student that is. Anyway this wasn't the time to space out like this.

"I was worried about you so I kind of forgot, sorry," she apologised sincerely.

"I know you didn't mean anything bad, but the actual result is that this has become a big problem for me. I told you I don't want anyone to find out you're living here and now my mom of all people has found out."

"I still can't understand why we can't just tell the truth."

"No, you don't understand. You don't understand just how much trouble and misunderstandings that will come out of it. My friends and the people we work with love gossip and absolutely love to misunderstand things. I won't hear the end of it, if it comes out you're living with me."

"What kinds of misunderstandings?"

"Argh, we don't have the time for this right now. Cagalli dress now, quickly! And don't wear anything revealing!" Athrun ordered her as he started to panic-clean the flat. Normally there wouldn't be any need for that but Cagalli didn't share his love for cleanness and it was hard to keep up picking up after her. He had just picked up her dirty panties off the floor when he the door bell rang. He quickly threw the clothes into the laundry basket and was about to rush to the door but stopped suddenly realising he was still in his pyjamas.

"Just a second!" he shouted.

"Aren't you gonna open the door?" Cagalli asked him as he was panicking.

"Are you suggesting I should open the door wearing my pyjamas?" That would really be the last straw, welcoming mom and dad not properly dressed with a girl in the flat. Cagalli was dressed but that wouldn't help very much.

"Should I open?" She asked ready to go to the front door.

"No! Just let them ring, I'll just change quickly, and then I'll do it. Luckily they don't have a key to this place so unless they can pick locks they shouldn't be able to come in, plus this flat has a safety door it shouldn't be that easy… hopefully."

"I'm starting to get really nervous!" Cagalli said jumping from excitement. It made him worried, but he didn't have time to make her calm down, plus it was hard to calm someone else down when you yourself were far from it. Swiftly he put on jeans and a t-shirt and then grabbed Cagalli's shoulder and looked her close in the eye, "Ok, here is what we're going say: You're a friend of mine who is living here until you found your own place."

"But that's the truth."

"…The more there is truth in what we're saying the easier it'll be to lie."

"So we're going to lie?"

"…We're not going to lie, we're just going to leave out some things."

"Ok, if you say so."

"We're not going to tell them you're a demon. That will be a secret between you and me alright?"

"Why, don't you trust your parents?"

"Of course I trust them."

"Then it should be alright to tell them."

"That is not the issue here, anyway we're not telling them!"

"But my integration project…"

"Leave my parents out of your project if you want to stay here." Athrun replied coldly and Cagalli could do nothing but nod even though she looked a little displeased. Athrun just ignored her and hurriedly passed her to open the door.

"Athrun!" Lenore said and hugged him.

"Hi, mom." Athrun answered and return the hug, it really had been a while since he saw his mom and now when she was right before him he felt that he had missed her a little.

He looked at his father, "Hi dad."

Patrick smiled apologetically at him as if to say "sorry I couldn't do anything to stop her" and answered, "Hello Athrun. Is everything going well?"

"Yeah, it's alright, though a little chaotic right now." Athrun smiled back weakly.

"It's been so long… It feels like you've lost weight, are you eating properly?" Lenore placed her hands on his shoulders and pushed him away a little and eyed him probably to confirm her suspicion.

"I'm doing alright." Athrun said.

"It's a mother's duty to say these things you know," Lenore said smiling a little teasingly, "And to embarrass her son in front of his new girlfriend," she continued and switched her gaze to Cagalli who was standing a few steps away.

"She's not my girlfriend," Athrun said, fast to contradict her.

"Oh, who is she then?" She asked as she walked to Cagalli and shook her hand, "It's nice to meet you, I'm Athrun's mother Lenore."

"I'm-" Cagalli started but was interrupted by Athrun,

"Her name is Cagalli and she's a friend who's living here until she's found her own place."

"Oh, I didn't ask you and I'm sure she can speak for herself." Lenore said and Athrun thought but that's exactly what you did! But of course didn't say out loud.

"I'm Cagalli, like Athrun said, he let me stay here when I said I didn't have any place to stay."

"Oh, my," Lenore said surprised and Athrun could see it wasn't a very good surprised so he hurriedly added,

"Cagalli is a colleague from work." she's not a homeless person or a prostitute… he didn't say the last bit.

"Ah, I see." And Lenore's smile changed from forced to a real one.

Patrick had taken his time and taken off his sandals. Like many other men in his age he wore golf shorts with socks and sandals. If you looked at him now it would be hard to imagine he was the president of a large company in which he also was the majority stock holder. But he loved golf and that was a sport that was popular amongst men in his position. He was fairly good at it too. Athrun had played golf too, not because he liked it particularly much, it was just something he was expected to do. But since Patrick loved it so much it was a natural way for them to spend some time together now and then. Though to Patrick's great dismay, Athrun was the better of the two. It was strange, but for some reason Athrun had a natural gift for sports when his real interests fitted into the nerdy indoor category. He liked computer games, electronics, programming and reading –especially books about electronics and computer magazines.

Patrick looked like he was in a great mood. He shook hands with Cagalli too, "Hi, I'm Athrun's father Patrick. Nice to meet you."

"I'm Cagalli, nice to meet you too." Cagalli smiled back at him. And Athrun secretly felt relieved, apparently they knew some manners in the other world. This visit had come as an absolute surprise leaving him no time to prepare Cagalli, or, as he rather had done, kick her out while they were here. But maybe, if Cagalli could just keep from doing something really stupid it would work out alright. It seemed like his parents got a favourable first impression so now it was only a matter of keeping that intact.

He followed the others to the kitchen, apparently Lenore was going to make lunch. He looked at the clock on the wall and saw it was now a quarter past twelve. He was hungry. Of course neither he nor Cagalli had eaten breakfast, so it wasn't very odd for him to feel hungry.

"Do you want to help, Cagalli?" he heard Lenore say and he felt something cold spreading along his spine. She had probably noticed Cagalli longing gaze as she was packing up the groceries, Cagalli always wanted to cook but Athrun wouldn't let her, not since the catastrophe she caused the first time when she had got the idea she was going to make him breakfast.

While Athrun looked like he was panicking Cagalli looked overjoyed to be allowed to help. But he made sure that didn't last too long, "No mom, she will destroy the kitchen, the food will be uneatable. She absolutely cannot cook!"

Lenore looked surprised and Cagalli looked terribly disappointed and he would almost feel bad for her but he valued his kitchen more.

"It doesn't matter if she can't cook, she can do something simple like cutting the vegetables." Lenore argued.

Athrun froze, he couldn't agree with that. Cagalli with knife - accident waiting to happen - fear, were the words appearing in Athrun's mind. If he hadn't known fear before he was introduced to it now. Just exactly what would happen was uncertain but he was sure it wasn't anything good and the uncertainty just made it worse.

"…That's not a good idea, I don't know how to express with words how bad of an idea that is," he said, but Lenore didn't listen. In horror he saw how Cagalli lifted the knife, and in astonishment he saw how she started cutting vegetable like she had done nothing else in her life. Apparently Lenore was surprised to, "Why did you say Cagalli can't cook Athrun, she's great isn't she."

Athrun didn't know what to answer but Cagalli answered instead, "Athrun is right, I can't cook. But I'm good with knives."

She beamed at them. And Athrun wanted to shake her. That didn't sound good in his ears and he was sure it didn't sound good to his mother either. But Athrun was surprised again, because Lenore didn't seem react to that at all. Neither did his father.

"Oh, then maybe you could fillet this fish too," Lenore asked.

"Oh, yes, I've done that many times when I've been fishing."

"Do you like fishing?" Patrick asked interestedly. Fishing was his other hobby, one that he couldn't get Athrun to participate in. He had tried to persuade him hundreds of times but Athrun simply refused.

"I love fishing," Cagalli said while she let the knife smoothly cut the fish along the spine.

Happy to have found an ally Patrick continued, "I wish you could persuade Athrun here, he never wants to come fishing with me."

"Eh, you don't like to fish, Athrun?" Cagalli asked.

"No," Athrun said shortly not wanting to get into this discussion again.

"Hey, that's no way to talk to your girlfriend Athrun," Patrick rebuked him.

"I said she isn't my girlfriend didn't I?"

"Now, now there's no reason to be embarrassed, right Lenore?"

"Exactly."

"Your mother and I are only happy you've finally found yourself such a cute girlfriend."

"Like I said she's not my- …never mind." Athrun gave up, he had foreseen that they would react this way anyway, or at least that his mom would.

"Anyway don't bother about that bore, Cagalli,"

"Is that any way to call your son?" Athrun asked. But Patrick totally ignored him, and continued to talk to Cagalli, "Which fishing method is your favourite?"

"I usually catch them with my hands!" she had the nerve to answer.

"Eh?!" Lenore and Patrick said surprised in unison.

"Hahaha, you're so funny Cagalli. Of course she doesn't!" Athrun laughed nervously and added sternly, looking at her, "You usually angle, don't you Cagalli?"

"Eh… eh, right. I angle." His hint/order luckily seemed to have gotten through to her.

Patrick looked at him strangely, "What's wrong with you today?"

"There's nothing wrong with me."

"You seem so uptight, I know you usually are but not this much."

"Thanks for the compliment dad."

"Stop picking on him Patrick, I'm sure his only nervous about introducing his girlfriend to his parents."

"Hmm, but shouldn't it be worse for Cagalli? She's the one who hasn't met us before?"

"But you know how Athrun is, and he's never had a girlfriend before, he doesn't know what to do in these situations."

"Oh, that's right." Patrick agreed.

And Athrun could just listen while they made presumptions about him. It did piss him off a little, but he had to admit the truth in what she was saying, he hadn't had a girlfriend so he didn't know what to do in these situations. It was just too bad he still hadn't a girlfriend and the reason that he was tense wasn't anxiety about what his parents would think about her, it was fear of what Cagalli might do. Thankfully she didn't lack common sense completely, some things seemed to be the same in Hell as here. She was polite to his parents at least.

They had lunch and Athrun and Cagalli who were very hungry wolfed down their food. As usual the words holding back didn't have any meaning to Cagalli when it came to food (or anything else for that matter). Normally, you would take it easy when you met new people, especially your boyfriend's parents (though obviously he wasn't really her boyfriend). That was what Athrun thought, though he didn't think very much of it, he had got used to her eating habits by now. His parents looked a little surprised he could tell, and no wonder, it was quite a sight to see such a slender little girl eat like a woodsman or make that a monster or what the hell now when he was at it, a demon.

"It's nice to see a girl with a real appetite" Patrick recovering from the initial shock, looking actually quite pleased.

"It's always nice when someone likes your cooking… You don't know how much I've struggled with Athrun," Lenore agreed.

"Really? It's not just me?" Cagalli asked.

"No, he always been very picky, and he'd suddenly refuse to eat a certain type of food. He used to love raspberries, it was his favourite when he was really small you see, and then all of a sudden he refused to eat them. I wonder why… he used to love them so much… And it was always hard to make him remember to eat in the first place, he always lost himself in some book or video-game and forgot when it was time for dinner."

"Hahahaha, you haven't changed one bit I notice Athrun!" Cagalli laughed at him.

"Haha, very funny. I ate just now didn't I. By the way thank you mom, it was really good."

"Your welcome honey, but don't just thank me, thank Cagalli too."

Athrun looked at Cagalli and after a while he managed to press something out of his mouth, "…thanks."

It required a lot of will-power though. Because in reality he didn't want to say it. Cagalli looked surprised and seemed confused, not knowing how to react she stared down at her empty plate. Her cheeks were coloured and he'd almost think she looked cute if it wasn't for the fact that she was Cagalli. He guessed she wasn't used to hear any compliments from him, and felt a little bad until he remembered all the things she had done and realised there hadn't been anything he could compliment her for thus far.

"I think you did great job, thank you Cagalli, Lenore," Patrick said changing the strange mood that had appeared.

"I'll put on some coffee," Athrun offered and started to clear the plates. Even if his mother had cooked the meal, this still was his home so he still was the host, he couldn't very well just sit on his ass looking at other people working.

"Oh, that's lovely. I almost forgot, I brought a cake as well." Lenore said.

"I'll help you with the dishes Athrun!" Cagalli offered.

"It's alright, you've already helped haven't you? I'll have to do my share too." Athrun insisted.

"Ah, Athrun you're such a gentleman, I'm so proud of you," his mom smiled at him. He knew she meant it as a compliment but he couldn't help but get a little irritated. He didn't want to be a gentleman, it sounded so reactionary. He wanted to be someone who respected people, which of course included women too, on an equal level. To be a gentleman seemed to imply he did it because he somewhere looked down on women and thought that they were weak, which he certainly didn't.

"Please don't call me that, I don't like it. And there is nothing to be proud about, it's just natural. I bet you wouldn't say that if I was your daughter," he ended up replying. Which he kind of regretted but he couldn't help himself.

"…here we go again, Athrun getting political…" Patrick sighed.

"I'm not getting political. I just don't like being called that. What is a gentleman anyway, someone who is polite towards women? As I see it you can be called a gentleman if you open up doors, but still think women belong in the home." Athrun retorted annoyed.

"But, Athrun honey, it doesn't have to mean something bad, I just meant that you're considerate." Lenore said.

"Then please, say it like that instead. Gentleman sounds like I think women are week or something."

"Uh, you're the only one who interprets it in that way I'd think though?" Patrick said.

"And I'd think not." Athrun said.

"Wow, you really are a nice family, you seem so close." Cagalli suddenly interrupted them and said.

They all looked at her and Athrun said, "Eh, we're arguing right now, Cagalli? I don't see what's so nice about that?"

"So what? It's good to argue when you disagree, that's not going to make you enemies, right? It's just mean you're close. I wish my family was like that."

They looked at each other and started laughing, nobody felt like keep arguing after that, it would just be silly.

"I'll put on some coffee, can you take out the cups Cagalli?" Athrun said.

"Yes!"

"I'll take out the cake then." Lenore said.

After that his parents stayed a little longer, and before they left Athrun had to promise to keep in touch.

He sighed from relief when they finally had seen them off and he looked the door. It wasn't like it hadn't been nice, it was just that it had been tiring since he had been so tense. He smiled at Cagalli and said, "It seems like they liked you."

"Really?!"

"Yeah really, you did well Cagalli," he smiled as he saw how she blushed looking like she didn't know what to make of the praise.

"I mean it," he emphasised before he changed the subject, "Well, what do you say, shall we take care of the dishes?"


End file.
